To the Moon is not a game I want to spoil for anyone. Yet exploring what makes this short pixel-art tale so wonderful is difficult without describing the characters, events and meanings that make it so. I’m hoping that the game’s premise will be enough to capture many people’s attention, as it did mine.This game was recommended to me by a good friend who said that it tells a beautiful story, helped by its equally beautiful score. As someone who adores all things otherworldly-themed, the title alone appealed to me. To the Moon follows Johnny, an elderly man on his death bed who has one strong wish left unfulfilled: to travel to the moon. Obviously reaching this goal when you’re at death’s door and with no formal training is illogical, but luckily the Sigmund Corporation are experienced professionals. Doctors Rosalene and Watts administer a procedure during Johnny’s final days that creates artificial memories, allowing them to interact with echoes of Johnny’s past, using mementoes to leap further and further back into his personal history. They hope to influence an echo of child-Johnny into pursuing the career of an astronaut – thus creating a timeline of memories that will include his dying wish.
It’s a lunar dream that Johnny himself does not fully understand, yet one that I’m sure many people can feel connected to (myself, certainly). I love that this story treads between practicality and pure emotion; the doctors are there to do their job and complete another work assignment. Simple. Yet the meaning behind that goal is anything but, because an individual’s life and memories are complex. Johnny’s past, particularly the deeper it is explored, is like a canvas of patterned, splattered, colourful layers. Freebird Games have done a beautiful job conveying this.I don’t wish to analyse the style of gameplay, graphics or writing in To the Moon because ultimately it’s the atmosphere it creates, the mood that bursts from the game that makes it so unique. There’s plenty to be said about the endearing pixel-art graphics, the amusing (and sometimes odd) script and the old-school exploration. However it is the story that sucks you in within an hour and keeps you involved for the following several. I would say that To the Moon is the perfect length; I played the game for six hours and finished it feeling emotionally sore and with a warm heart full of relief (for a while there, things didn’t look too rosy). Even better is the fact that the soundtrack perfectly accompanies the experience: the title music alone is enough to reveal that you’re in for something quite wonderful.
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To the Moon is undoubtedly a journey through very private and unembellished terrain. Johnny’s late wife, River, is introduced early on in the game as the inspiration for the beautiful piano title track, ‘For River’. Much of the journey involves the red-haired subject of Johnny’s affections, and the tale of how they reach old age together living below the lighthouse that holds so much meaning to them. I don’t wish to put off anyone who tends to avoid emphasised romance, so I will simply say that Johnny and River’s story is heartfelt. Also, that it is at times the very antithesis to “cheesy” – To the Moon explores a range of feelings, some much more stark and realistic than many might expect.
Discussions of mental illnesses, trauma and disorders play a pervasive role. There are hints that things aren’t quite right; identical origami rabbits crowding rooms, strange, unsettling compositions of the scenes in Johnny’s past. I found it fascinating that To the Moon deliberately avoids naming any diagnoses that appear in the story. The information and signs of such are visible to the player, yet we are left to apply a label to these characters. This feels very deliberate, and so too does the recurring discussion of what it means to be a sufferer of a mental or social disorder; and what it means to experience it as a loved one, a family member or a friend. Most memorable to me is a scene in Johnny’s fairly recent memory where he and River are having a drink with two old friends. I found that this point in the game became so honest and so real that I refrained from playing for at least another day. Pretty powerful for something out of RPG Maker, huh?It’s because the writing – whilst patchy at points – got it so right. It hit too close to home, yet I would never consider this a fault; quite the contrary. One character confesses that “normality” for her is only achieved through acting. She describes her life as revolving around “faking” a persona in order to feel real, and seem real to others. This might not seem so farfetched to some; I’m sure at points in our lives, we all feel to have adopted a facade in order to fit in. But when the disguise slips? For this character in To the Moon, removing this mask reveals a stranger. She admits that she does not know who she really is.
To the Moon is a journey, and some of the routes it takes did trouble me. The way Johnny’s childhood and adult selves view unorthodox behaviour tripped me up due to their honesty and bluntness. Yet this tells some important truths. Naivety can be dangerous: at some point in life everyone wishes to be different, to break away from what seems too typical. Yet similarly there are those people who want nothing but to be accepted, to blend in, to be the same. There’s nothing wrong with either of these desires, but it’s so important to avoid identifying people as one or the other, to label or to alienate.
Johnny and River learn this from each other. Weirdly, I love that this game made me feel uncomfortable at points; the innocence of certain characters and the frankness of their confessions felt relative to memories in my own life that are usually kept at bay. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so connected to a game, least of all one that lasted just over a handful of hours, and I owe that to its genuine, pure storytelling.All the small details you uncover in the form of mementoes and objects are pulled together in the game’s finale in a way that is very gratifying. If you find yourself unsatisfied with the ending, I would be completely shocked. To the Moon‘s journey begins and ends in the stars, and tells us that all of those difficult, emotional and most meaningful moments in our lives are never truly lost to time (or space!)
£6.99 is a small price to pay for this masterpiece – head to the Steam Store now.
